Vengeance

All through the night, Chrysalis and Peridot packed and readied supplies for the flight to Canterlot. Since the trip wasn't going to be very long, they only filled one pair of saddlebags with just enough food and water to keep their strength up. Since Peridot was older and bigger than Chrysalis, she would carry the saddlebags on her back. Which was a good thing, because the bags might hinder Chrysalis's flight if she were carrying them.

A few minutes before dawn, when they were at the Hive's only exit doors, Jade cast the invisibility spell on her sisters and their saddlebags. Since she was the spell caster, she could see their green-and-teal outlines. "Go now, sisters, and good luck," she whispered, after magically deactivating the enchanted crystals on the door. Jade watched them go, flying fast and steadily. "I love you," she whispered after them, even though her sisters could not hear her.

"Make sure to stay hydrated," Peridot told Chrysalis as they flapped their wings madly. "It'll keep you up for a longer period of time."

"Noted," Chrysalis said, glancing back at the Hive. It was now little more than ant-sized, from her point of view. She pulled out a map, which she had stuffed into Peridot's saddlebags at the last minute, and kept it suspended in midair with her magic as they flew. "So, like Jade said, we're on the same route that Mother's army will take. We should reach the Endless Chasm, right here on the map, in about nine hours, where we'll stop to eat a little. Then we'll get to the border fourteen hours after that break. Roughly. It'll be delayed a bit if we stop to eat again. Once we reach the border, we'll fly straight to Canterlot."

"Exactly," Peridot confirmed. She frowned at the map. "Where did you get this, Chrysalis? Changelings don't have maps of Equestria just lying around the Hive."

Chrysalis fiddled with a corner of the map, looking suspiciously guilty to Peridot.

"I . . . I stole it from Mother's War Room," Chrysalis admitted, rolling up the map and tucking it back into the saddlebags. "She's got lots of them there. I figured she wouldn't miss this one."

To Chrysalis's surprise, Peridot clapped her hooves together happily. "Way to go, sis!" she cheered. "You do have a devious streak after all! Now that's what I like to hear."

After nine hours of flying, Chrysalis was sleep-flying. Her eyes were closed, she was asleep, but she kept flying. Peridot kept a sharp eye on her sister while they flew, ready to catch Chrysalis if she fell out of the sky.

Finally, the two princesses reached their first destination: the Endless Chasm. "Chrysalis, wake up," Peridot hissed, grabbing her sister by the shoulders and shaking her hard. "We're at the Chasm! Wake up, please!"

Chrysalis opened her eyes, still sleepy. "Huh? I'm awake, I'm awake," she grumbled, rubbing her eyes with her hooves. "Wow, is that the Endless Chasm? It's huge!"

And it was. The Endless Chasm, aptly named, was literally never-ending – a black, bottomless pit. Unless you had wings or magic, if you fell into the Chasm, you would probably never come out again. It sounded lovely.

Peridot and Chrysalis sat at the edge of the Chasm for a short break to eat. They had brought some Jewel Fruit, Changeling-made cheese, small rice cakes made for travel, honey water, and plain water. Chrysalis especially liked the special cheese, hoofmade by her own kind, which had a rich, nutty flavor.

"We should get moving again," Peridot said, finishing up a sweet rice cake. She began to pack up the rest of the food. "There's still a long way to go. Drink more water."

"Yes, Mother," said Chrysalis. She rolled her eyes, took out a corked vial half-filled with water, and drank it all.

They got to the Equestrian border in about fourteen hours and a half. Once again, they stopped to eat and rest before moving on.

"I hope the princesses believe us," Chrysalis murmured. She lay on her back to stare up at the sky, a mix of the Wastelands' dusty, yellowy-orange and Equestria's bright, cloudless blue. "Who would trust a Changeling, of all things? We're as bad as Nightmare Moon or Discord or Lord Tirek, to the ponies of Equestria."

"They will believe us," Peridot said with certainty. "They will. We'll make them believe."

A day later, the invisibility spell wore off. Chrysalis and Peridot, now in Canterlot, had disguised themselves as two ordinary ponies. Chrysalis was a young unicorn mare with a cream-colored coat, warm amber eyes, and a long, wavy, light golden mane. She had a new name: Golden Diamond, which matched her fake cutie mark of a brilliant-cut golden jewel.

Peridot had chosen the form of a pegasus mare, fittingly a few years older than "Golden Diamond", with a dark blue coat, long silvery-white mane, silver eyes, and a silver feather for a cutie mark. She came up with the false name of Silver Feather. Her name matched her cutie mark, like "Golden Diamond's" did.

Neither Chrysalis nor Peridot had been to Canterlot, or Equestria, before. They went straight to the supposedly luxurious Canterlot Palace, where the two Royal Alicorn Sisters, Celestia and Luna, resided, surrounded by servants and aides and guards. Changelings didn't have a ton of knowledge about Equestrian pony culture, but they knew some things, which was better than nothing.

Chrysalis and Peridot, in their pony disguises, hid behind some rosebushes near the palace gates. On either side of the gates stood a white-coated guard stallion in the golden armor of Princess Celestia's Day Guard. They were both pegasi, one gray and one white.

"Okay. Destination reached," Peridot whispered to Chrysalis, crouched behind the thorny bushes. "Here's what we'll do. We approach the guards and request to see Princess Luna. She'd probably be more likely to trust us, listen to us, and believe what we say. Say it's urgent, because it is, and we need to see the princess right away."

"Right. Plan accepted and approved." Chrysalis batted a prickly branch away from her face. "Let's go."

They made a wide turn around the bushes, carefully staying out of the guards' sight, until they approached the gates, trying to make it look like they hadn't been hiding in the bushes just then. The two guards stiffened and shot out their wings to bar the sisters' path when the young mares stopped in front of the stallions.

"Halt! Who goes there?" demanded the guard on the left.

"We're here to see Princess Luna, sirs." Peridot spoke calmly. "It's top priority that we see her right away."

The guards eyed them suspiciously. "Do you two have an appointment with Princess Luna?" the guard on the right asked.

"N-no," Chrysalis stepped in. "But please, sir, the news is very important."

The left guard snorted. "All right. You're going to see the princess's personal aide, Sapphire Starlight. Then, and only then, she will decide if your news is important enough to talk to Princess Luna about. Lightning Fast and Sunny Flare will escort you into the palace."

As if on cue, two Day Guards, one a pegasus stallion and the other an earth pony mare, appeared on the other side of the gates, which the two gate guards opened.

"You are on the palace grounds now," said the yellow-coated mare, who Chrysalis assumed was Sunny Flare. "Come with us and don't touch anything. What are your names?"

"I'm Silver Feather, ma'am, and this is my friend Golden Diamond," Peridot lied to the guard. "We have urgent business with Princess Luna."

Sunny Flare nodded. "We heard. We are taking you to Sapphire Starlight, her personal aide."

The guards led "Silver Feather" and "Golden Diamond" through the palace's many corridors until they reached a door marked NIGHT AIDE.

Lightning Fast knocked on the door and then pushed it open. "Sapphire, these two fillies are here to speak with Princess Luna," he said. "Sunny Flare and I will leave them with you."

"Thank you, Lightning," came a voice from inside the room.

"We're not fillies," Chrysalis huffed under her breath. Sunny Flare's ear twitched, and a small smile crept onto the royal guard's face before they left.

Chrysalis and Peridot walked into the room, which turned out to be an office. A unicorn mare sat behind the large, dark mahogany desk, her horn aglow with silver magic as she wrote with five quills all at once. She was pretty and a little older than Jade – deep blue coat, lighter blue mane, indigo eyes, and a silver-white quill and ink bottle on her flank as a cutie mark. A silver plaque at the edge of her desk was etched with the name SAPPHIRE STARLIGHT. Beneath her name, in smaller letters, read Personal aide to Princess Luna.

The unicorn stopped the quills, and her magic disappeared. "I'm Sapphire Starlight, Princess Luna's personal aide," she said. "And you are . . .?"

"Oh! Yes." Peridot smiled. "I'm Silver Feather, and this is Golden Diamond. We have important news for the princess, ma'am."

"You can call me Sapphire." Sapphire Starlight frowned. "I don't recall you two asking for an appointment anytime."

"That's because we didn't," Chrysalis admitted. "It's on short notice, Sapphire."

Sapphire pursed her lips. "Well. What is your news?" she asked. "Princess Luna does not have time to waste on unimportant matters."

"I'm sorry, Sapphire," Peridot replied. "It's for only the princess to know. We can't tell you."

"I see." The mare frowned down at the paperwork on her desk. "Princess Luna is currently taking tea in the gardens with Princess Celestia. I will take you to see her. Come with me." She stood up, and her magic tugged a light white scarf from a hook and wrapped it around her neck.

It turned out that Sapphire's office had a door that led to the royal gardens that surrounded the palace. They walked through the gardens, past merrily splashing fountains of white marble and gleaming turquoise water, through jewel-toned flowers and trees, passed by koi ponds and pavilions and the small freshwater lake, and reached a private part of the gardens. This was where Princess Luna and Princess Celestia took their tea together every day, Sapphire told Peridot and Chrysalis, no matter how busy they were.

The two alicorn sisters were sitting at a table in an open pavilion, talking and sipping tea. Despite being sisters, they looked nothing alike, aside from the fact that each of them had both a unicorn horn and pegasus wings. Princess Celestia, Co-Ruler of Equestria, Diarch of the Sun and Day, had a snowy white coat and a long, flowing mane of soft pastel colors that rippled and moved in its own magic breeze. Her cutie mark was, fittingly, a blazing sun. Her younger sister, Princess Luna, Co-Ruler of Equestria, Diarch of the Moon and Night, was dark blue with a star-speckled blue mane that magically moved like her sister's. Of course, on her flank was a white crescent moon against a backdrop of inky indigo darkness. While Celestia's eyes were violet, Luna's eyes were turquoise.

"Sapphire Starlight." It was Celestia who spoke first. The Royal Sisters nodded to the Luna's aide.

"I thought I said we were not to be interrupted during our tea together, Sapphire," Luna said, levitating her teacup back to the table with a flare of blue magic.

"Your Highnesses, forgive me for the interruption," Sapphire said as she, Chrysalis, and Peridot stood at the edge of the pavilion, "but Silver Feather and Golden Diamond here say they need to speak with Princess Luna right away. The reason for this is unknown to me, as they did not tell me."

Celestia and Luna both looked the disguised sisters up and down with intense eyes that bored into them. "Very well, thank you, Sapphire," Celestia said finally. "You may leave them with us."

"Yes, Princess." Sapphire bowed and trotted away down the garden path.

Once Sapphire was gone, Luna and her sister turned back to "Silver" and "Golden". "What is it that you wanted to speak to us, or specifically me, about?" Luna asked them. She smothered a small laugh when she saw Chrysalis's and Peridot's nervous, or even scared, expressions. "Do not worry, my little ponies. We do not bite. At least, not all the time," she added with a little giggle, which earned her a look from Celestia.

"Your Highnesses, do you know of the race known as Changelings?" Chrysalis asked them, getting straight to the point.

"I believe they are the insect-like ponies who feed on love and have the ability to shape-shift into real ponies," Celestia said simply. "So yes, we do know of them."

"Why do you mention them?" asked Princess Luna. "They live in the Wastelands. We have not had contact with the Changelings in three thousand years, during the reign of one of their early queens, Silkwing."

"That's exactly why we are here," Peridot said. "Your Highnesses, you knew Princess Flitterheart, don't you?"

Celestia and Luna looked surprised. "Yes, we did," said the Sun Princess. Strangely, the alicorn sisters looked sad. Like they'd known Flitterheart, a Changeling princess, personally and liked her. "She was a Changeling princess, Queen Silkwing's daughter. She was . . . no. How do you know of her?"

"Because she is part of the reason why we came to you," Chrysalis said quietly. "It is three thousand years from the first Changeling-Equestrian War, is it not?"

Peridot took a deep breath. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, would you believe us if we told you that the Changelings are planning a war against you?"